Introduction

Author

Thanks to Moritz Heidkamp for the implementation of the content body reader and for several terminology suggestions (including the egg name). Also thanks to Peter Bex for the helpful discussions and lots of implementation suggestions.

Procedures parameters and macros

Procedure

request-vars

[procedure](request-vars #!key (source 'both) max-content-length)

request-vars returns a procedure which can be used to access variables from the HTTP request. The returned procedure takes the name of the variable (either a symbol or a string) as argument. You can (optionally) also pass a converter procedure to be used as a type converter for the variable value (see Converter procedures) or a default value.

request-vars accepts some keyword arguments:

source

'query-string tells request-vars to parse the query string only (for GET variables). 'request-body tells request-vars to parse the request body only (e.g., for POST variables). 'both tells request-vars to parse both the request body and the query string. The default value for source is 'both. Notice that when 'both is used, variables from the request body have precedence over the ones from the query string.

max-content-length

the maximum content length (in characters) to be read from the request body. Default is #f (no limit).

Converter procedures

The following procedures are intended to be used by the procedure returned by request-vars. The variables/values parameter is an alist mapping variable names to their corresponding values, resulting from parsing the request.

as-string

[procedure](as-string variable variables/values)

If the given variable is set, return its value as a string (that's the default behavior if no converter is specified).

as-symbol

[procedure](as-symbol variable variables/values)

If the given variable is set, convert its value to a symbol using string->symbol.

as-number

[procedure](as-number variable variables/values)

If the given variable is set, convert its value to a number using string->number.

as-boolean

[procedure](as-boolean variable variables/values)

If the variable is set and its value is one of the values yield by the true-boolean-values parameter, return #t, otherwise return #f. It also returns #t if the variable is passed in the request but is not bound to any value.

as-list

[procedure](as-list variable variables/values)

If the variable is set once, returns a list with a single element (the value for the given variable). If the variable is set multiple times, return a list with the multiple values for the variable. If the variable is not set, return #f.

as-alist

[procedure](as-alist variable variables/values)

Returns an alist represented by the request variables/values for the given variable. The request representation for alists is variable.key=value. Example: foo.a=1 would result in '((a . "1")) for the foo variable.

as-alist returns #f when the wanted variable is not sent in the request or it is sent not in the dot notation (e.g., foo=0).

as-hash-table

[procedure](as-hash-table variable variables/values)

The same as as-alist, but returns a hash-table object instead of an alist.

as-vector

[procedure](as-vector variable variables/values)

Returns a vectir represented by the request variables/values for the given variable. The request representation for vectors is variable.numeric-index=value. Example: foo.0=1 would result in #("1") for the foo variable.

as-vector returns #f when the wanted variable is not sent in the request or it is sent not in the dot notation (e.g., foo=0).

If the vector represented by the request is sparse, the missing items are unspecified values.

Combinator

nonempty

[procedure](nonempty converter)

A combinator to be used with converters. Returns the converter value if the variable is set and its value is not null. Returns #f if its value is null.

It can be useful for handling values from form-submited data, when all form fields are submited, but some are null. If you are only interested in values that are not null, you can just check if the return value of nonempty is not #f (otherwise you'd have to check if the variable was actually in the request and if its value is not null).

Example:

(let((var (or ($ 'var (nonempty as-string))"not set")))
var)

Parameter

true-boolean-values

[parameter](true-boolean-values)

A list of values (strings) to be considered as #t for request variables when as-boolean is used as converter.

The default value is '("y" "yes" "1" "on" "true"). The values are compared using string-ci=?.

Example

(let(($ (request-vars)))($ 'var1)($ 'var2 "");; if var12 is not set, return ""
($ 'var3 as-number));; if var3 is not set, return #f; if it is
;; set, convert its value to a number

Macros

with-request-vars

Bind the given identifiers to the corresponding query string and request body variable values and evaluate the expressions. The optional getter argument (the return value of request-vars) may be used in situations when you already have the getter and don't want to reparse the query string and request body. With with-request-vars*, the given getter will be used and no reparsing will be performed. When the syntax is ambiguous (e.g., (with-request-vars (request-vars) (var1 var2) (body)), with-request-vars* can be used).

License

Copyright (c) 2008-2011, Mario Domenech Goulart
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
met:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the name of the author nor the names of its contributors may
be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
"AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
COPYRIGHT HOLDERS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT,
INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT,
STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED
OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

version 0.13

version 0.12

Bug fixes: request-vars returns #f when the content-type is not application/x-www-form-urlencoded (thanks to Peter Bex for reporting this problem). req-vars/vals always return a list.

version 0.11

Applied patch by Moritz Heidkamp which enhances as-boolean in two ways: It adds "true" to the default list of true-boolean-values and it considers the mere presence of the parameter as #t, i.e. a query string like "?foo" would bind foo to #t when it is cast as-boolean.

version 0.9

version 0.8

version 0.7

Bug fix. Interpret request body before query string.

version 0.6

support for specifying types to variables

support for receiving lists from the URI

Warning: compatibility with previous versions has been broken: now the procedure returned by request-vars accepts only two arguments, not three. So, if you are using converter procedures as argument to the procedure returned by request-vars, beware that your code will break.

version 0.5

with-request-vars accepts a getter as argument when the syntax is not ambiguous.

version 0.4

with-request-vars* resurrected. For the cases when the syntax of with-request-vars is ambiguous. Thanks to Moritz Heidkamp for catching this bug.